And what is good for PC sales is good for Microsoft, although the market is clearly cooling with maturity:

Loren Loverde, director of IDC’s worldwide quarterly PC tracker, said the industry appears to be settling into a period of 10 percent annual growth rates, which remains healthy although lower than the rates closer to 15 percent seen in the past few years.

3 Responses to “PC sales healthy in 2nd quarter”

[...] – Apple wowed the crowd with a 48% jump in net income, 32% more iPods sold, and a 12% jump in Mac sales. The latter doesn’t seem like a lot given the overall market, but there was a 61% increase in notebook sales which made Macs 12% of the market. This seemed even rosier since they are still in transition to Intel processors and in view of a reported survey that had 50% of Mac customers as “new to the Mac.” Apple also teased the crowd on the announcement call with visions of an iPod phone. [...]

[...] Client revenue and income were up nicely for a change: “Client revenue increased reflecting $330 million or 13% growth in OEM revenue driven by 19% growth in OEM licenses and $32 million or 6% growth in revenue from commercial and retail licensing.” However, the puzzle is why OEM revenue lagged licenses by so much and how there was a 19% growth in licenses when PC shipments were only up 10%. There was a billing switch which accounts for part of it. [...]

[...] Microsoft sees up to 10 percent sales growth from Vista: Microsoft expects sales in its popular Windows division to grow 8 to 10 percent in the coming fiscal year, a senior executive said Thursday. The No. 1 computer software maker expects sales of between $14.3 billion and $14.5 in its Windows operating system division in its current fiscal year, Kevin Johnson, co-president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division, said during the company’s annual financial analyst meeting being held at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Since that’s the projected unit growth rate in PC’s, Microsoft’s Windows client revenue is merely matching units. I guess that’s good news since it has lagged unit growth recently and presumably a match is the best they expect from the upselling and antipiracy initiatives: Vista, with its multiple versions, has “something for everyone,” Johnson said, but Microsoft plans in particular to promote the purchase of its higher-end, or “premium” versions to consumers. Traditionally, higher-end versions do better among business customers than home users. “There is an opportunity for us to grow the premium mix,” he said. [...]